As an African American evaluator, Hood presents his thoughts regarding the role of African Americans in evaluation research, and the importance of incorporating racial factors in the evaluation process. He reviews the contributions of African American evaluators during the Tyler Years (1940-1960), and demonstrates how their early works paralleled the current concepts of responsive evaluation, including the importance of qualitative data, shared lived experiences, and responses to the critical concerns of the evaluation participants. He questions why the work of these researchers have not been acknowledged, and argues that increasing the number of evaluators of color would lead to more efficient and effective responsive evaluations.

Letiecq, B.L. & Bailey, S. (2004). Evaluating from the outside: Conducting cross-cultural evaluation research on an American Indian reservation. Evaluation Review, 28(4), 342-357

Given the limited guidance for conducting competent and responsive cross-cultural evaluation research with American Indian communities, the authors draw on Fisher and Ball’s Tribal Participatory Research Model to highlight ways in which this project is attempting to be culturally appropriate and sensitive as they partner with an American Indian community to implement and evaluate a youth-based initiative. Challenges encountered during the evaluation are shared, as well as the authors’ collective responses to such challenges. Implications for future cross-cultural evaluation researchers are also discussed in light of these experiences.

Anderson-Draper, M.H. (2006). Understanding cultural competence through the evaluation of “Breaking the Silence: A Project to Generate Critical Knowledge About Family Violence Within Immigrant Communities.” Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation, 21(2), 59-79.

This article examines the topical concept of cultural competence for evaluators by presenting reflections on the evaluation of “Breaking the silence: A project to generate critical knowledge about family violence within immigrant communities” as a case example. Experiences of the internal evaluator in relation to cultural competency are explored and implications for practice are presented. Including sufficient time to build relationships, facilitating a learning process, and developing evaluator competencies are among the salient themes presented.

This book presents the “participatory culture-specific intervention model (PCSIM)” as an innovative and culturally competent model aimed at developing effective school based programs that incorporate the ethnicity, race, and culture of the associated individuals and communities. The first chapter lays a theoretical framework and discusses a participatory process in developing socially valid and sustainable mental health programs in school settings. The second chapter describes how the fields of anthropology and school psychology were drawn upon for the basic concepts of PCSIM. The remaining chapters provide specific, practical, and illustrative information regarding the implementation of PCSIM, a model that incorporates a variety of methods including participant observation, expert consultation, and ongoing program improvement.

Hood, S. (2004). A journey to understand the role of culture in evaluation: Snapshots and personal reflections of one African American evaluator. In M. Thompson-Robinson, R. Hopson, & S. SenGupta (Eds.), In search of cultural competence in evaluation: Toward principles and practices.New Directions for Evaluation, No. 102. (pp. 21-37). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Kirkhart, K. E. (2005). Through a cultural lens: Reflections on validity and theory in evaluation. In S. Hood, R. Hopson & H. Frierson (Eds.), The role of culture and cultural context: A mandate for inclusion, the discovery of truth, and understanding in evaluative theory and practice (pp. 21-39). Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing.

Guzmán, B.L. (2003). Examining the role of cultural competency in program evaluation: Visions for new millennium evaluators. In S.I. Donaldson & M. Scriven (Eds.). Evaluating social programs and problems: Visions for the New Millennium (pp. 167-181). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Hood, S., Hopson, R., & Frierson, H. (Eds.) (2005). The role of culture and cultural context in evaluation: A mandate for inclusion, the discovery of truth and understanding. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing, Inc.